Misnébalam

Misnébalam is a former henequen hacienda in the north of Mérida municipality, about 18 km from the city, reached by a turn-off from the Mérida–Progreso highway (around km 15–17, depending on the source) and then about 5 km of dirt road through low scrub. It belongs to the area of the comisaría of Santa María Yaxché. Once a working village of hacienda families, it has had no permanent residents since at least the 2005 census, and it is now known across Yucatán as 'the ghost town'. The name joins two Maya words: misné, a cat's tail, and balam, jaguar.

The hacienda flourished in the early 20th century, during the boom of henequen, the 'green gold' that made Yucatán's planters rich. Around 1920 some 150 to 200 people, mostly workers and their families, lived around the main house. Its owner, Fidencio Márquez, issued his own hacienda tokens, now collected by numismatists, and in 1921 he was killed on a sascab road near the property. The decline of henequen in the face of synthetic fibres and falling demand slowly emptied the place; the population dwindled through the 20th century until the last families left. Local stories prefer a darker explanation: hauntings.

What remains is a scatter of roofless stone houses along grassy streets, the walls of the church behind its gateposts, the shell of the main house with its arched portico, old machinery and a well, all slowly being taken over by trees. The legends are a large part of the draw: Fidencio Márquez's ghost is said to walk the village, along with a boy called Juliancito and a monk who died in the church. Visits peak in October and November, around Day of the Dead and Halloween, when walking and bicycle tours run at night; bike tours leave from the nearby comisaría of Xcunyá, where tickets are sold. The land is private property, so going with an organised tour is the sensible way to visit.